■ Monitors
Chunghwa to lift LCD price
Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd (中華映管) will raise the price of 15-inch liquid-crystal displays next month, a Chinese-language newspaper said, citing Lin Wei-shan (林蔚山), the president of Tatung Co (大同), the company's parent. Chunghwa Picture will lift the price by US$5 to US$10 per unit, the newspaper said, citing Lin. The company may return to profit in the third quarter after incurring a loss in the first half, the report said, quoting the president. The Taipei-based company, which is expected to report second-quarter earnings by the end of next month, had a net loss of NT$4 billion (US$126 million) in the first quarter, according to the figures released by the company.
■ Automakers
VW details Proton offer
Volkswagen AG has proposed buying more than 50 percent of Proton Holdings Bhd, Malaysia's largest carmaker, the Edge weekly magazine said, citing officials it didn't name. Europe's largest carmaker outlined its proposal when meeting with senior officials from Proton and Khazanah Nasional Bhd, the Malaysian government's investment agency that owns 43 percent of Proton, the report said. Hyundai Motor Co, South Korea's largest automaker, is also interested in a strategic alliance with Proton for the Malaysian carmaker's assembly plant and platforms, the report said. Khazanah Nasional said on Friday it doesn't plan to sell any of its 43 percent stake in Proton to Volkswagen. Proton's domestic market share has dropped from 57 percent in 1993 to around 30 percent in June as the government lifted protective tariffs on foreign-made cars due to a regional free trade agreement.
■ Finance
Temasek renews offer
Singapore's Temasek Holdings Pte asked the board of directors at Chang Hwa Commercial Bank (彰化銀行) to reconsider its takeover offer, two Chinese-language newspapers reported yesterday, citing unnamed board directors at the Taiwanese lender. Morgan Stanley, Temasek's financial adviser, sent a letter to Chang Hwa's directors on Friday, seeking to explore possibilities of taking control of the lender, the two business dailies said. Temasek's move came after Taishin Financial Holding Co (台新金控) on July 22 won a bid to buy 1.4 billion new preferred shares of Chang Hwa, which upon completion of the transaction would make it the biggest shareholder. Temasek is Singapore's state-owned investment company. It was reported to be one of five potential bidders for the stake in Chang Hwa.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure